Oye

Time for one of my twice a decade posts. Post

Remember

This is not a day for politics, arguing over Iraq or the other trivial issues we think of on a daily basis.

Instead of wasting time reading about whether your baseball team won last night, why not read a list of Sept. 11 victims. Spend some time thinking about one or two of those poor unfortunates. They deserve the recognition.

Tom Holohan, I remember.

Don Imus

Two million is a big number.

298 million is a bigger number.

Don Imus' daily radio show has about 2 million listeners, that means 298 million Americans could care less about what he says. Now, just because Imus says a handful of stupid words the number of people who seem to care what Imus says has increased 20 or 30 times.

Logically and mathmatically this does not make any sense. If you don't listen to Imus and perhaps just have a vague notion of what his show is all about why do you now care if he used a deragatory phrase to describe a female basketball team?

Odds are you wouldn't. However, the wonderful media, of which I'm a small part, does care and wants to make sure you care. The press has blown what should have been a throwaway line heard by a tiny percentage of the U.S. population into the next coming of the KKK.

All because the press is always looking for the next big "gotcha" moment.

This could be Michael Richardson going insane at a comedy club, Mel Gibson going insane to a cop or maybe the press could use its power turn some innocent people into crimminals as it did with the Duke lacrosse players.

Yes, the Duke players. Here is a situation very similar to what happened with Imus. It had all the ingredients of grade A network news theater. White against black, rich against poor and a power crazed district attorney looking to keep his job. The press destroyed these young men well before any evidence concerning the incident was known.

The general consensus was they had to be guilty. After all don't all rich white kids attending a good school want to rape a black stripper?

Well, they were wrong. The kids were innocent the accuser a lier. Just like Imus accusation was wrong. But where is the press now. Some are attacking the district attorney, none are attacking the accuser and most importanly none are apologizing for what they did.

If I were one of the Duke players I would add to my law suit list CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and every other organization that covered the event for defamation of character.

Cure For Gayness

I guess this guy's female wife must be happy.

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is "completely heterosexual."

For the whole story.

Ground Hog Day

Last year I exposed Groundhog Day for what it really is, a reason for Penn State students to stay up drinking all night on a cold and snowy hillside, but this year I'm going to expose myself.

No, don't call the vice squad. I'm only exposing my ignorance.

For no particular reason I decided to see when the first day of spring is in 2007. It falls on March 21. It then occurred to me, "hey, isn't that about six weeks from today, Feb.2?"

In fact it's 47 days away or about 6.5 weeks. Maybe everybody knew that the inside joke about Groundhogs Day is that no matter what the damn rat sees we get six more weeks of winter.

I am crushed and embarrassed.

Whose In Charge

Back another of my blog's pet topics, poor parenting.

There is a story on Foxnews.com about a German mother and father who allowed their 12 year old boy to undergo hormone treatments allowing him to become more female. This includes growing breasts and wearing makeup.

What 12 year old is capable of making any decision passed what color sox to wear? If this boy truly believes he is a girl trapped in a male body then let him wait till he is truly old enough to make such a life changing decision.

And then there are the parents.

As a parent I've had days when my kids, both younger then the boy in question, have begged me for something until I'm willing to do almost anything to quiet them down. However, when they are asking for something foolish I know it's my job to say no and stick to it. I wonder how many rounds of "I wanna be a girl" these parents went though before they caved? Not that it matters because there should be no limit.

I suppose the only saving grace in this situation is the parents didn't pay for the operation that would have made the change permanent.

Global Warming

One of my very few hobbies is the weather. With the Northeast part of the US in a cold snap, after having been spring-like warm for most of December and January I thought it might be interesting to see what weather experts think.

I've had a couple of email conversations with some of the weather forecasters at Accuweather.com on this topic. I was interested in whether they believe global warming is manmade or simply a phase in the Earth's life like the ice age. Accuweather's Elliot Abrams said he does believe the world is warming, but is not sure why, the same response came today in a blog entry from Dr. Joe Sobel.

Sobel calls himself a skeptic on Global Warming without stating if he means its a natural occurrence or if it's just not happening. But what was interesting is how he worries that the issue is being politicized at the expense of good science being conducted.

I tend to believe it is happening, but I think it's mother nature doing the damage. However, I totally agree with Sobel on the politicis of the issue. When the president, with his direct ties to the fossil fuel industry, states there is no problem his belief is taken with a large grain of salt. It behooves him to defend his former industry and the people who pour money into the Republican election coffers. When the president's opponents take the opposite stance it appears to many that they are simply trying to score political points. I'm sure this situation is impossible to get away from, but once something so important becomes an election talking point we are doomed.

Please Read This Post

http://largebillpontificates.blogspot.com/2007/01/required-reading.html

Discussion later